The dead leaves on the street were covered with a thin layer of white. It was the frost that fell last night and the smooth stone slabs made a clear "tick-tick-tick" sound. The sound of horseshoes on the hard road was particularly clear. Zhang Ning and the others who were accompanying him
People were riding horses through the streets of the city. There were almost no people along the way.
Jiujiang City, which "is located at the mouth of Sanjiang River and is connected with merchants from seven provinces," suddenly seemed to have turned into an empty city with uninhabited houses and tightly closed facades. At this moment, Zhang Ning had an illusion.
, as if archaeologists had suddenly discovered a forgotten ancient city. The streets were covered with dead branches and leaves, and it was extremely desolate. It seemed that even the handymen working in the yamen had run away, otherwise this would happen before dawn.
There are street sweepers
The dew on the trees on the roadside has not yet dried, and water droplets fall from the leaves from time to time, hitting people's faces and necks head-on. It is so cold that it can make people shiver. The wind that blows in the face when riding a horse is also very cold, Zhang Ning thought to himself
:It’s a sunny day today. It should be warm after the sun comes out.
When a group of people walked to the front of the government office, suddenly many people appeared in front of them. There was Guangchao outside the gate of the government office. The road along Fuqian Street was also very wide and flat, but at this time it was occupied by many people and debris, leaving only
A group of soldiers squatted in the square in a very narrow passage. Some were wearing the gray uniforms of the Suzaku Army, and some were wearing self-made clothes of the Jiujiang Army. None of them were wearing weapons or armor.
They didn't wear their iron-brimmed hats either. They seemed to be preparing to dry gunpowder there.
At first glance, these people look quite chaotic, but if you pay closer attention, you will find that they have their own division of labor. Some people are pouring black powder into the stone pound. The container looks like something common people use to process rice, and then add water to the stone pound.
Some people used wooden sticks to pound some lumps of black mud-like stuff, and put them in bamboo covers to cool the "black mud" that had been dried before cooling on the ground. Others smashed it into pieces and sieved it through a bamboo sieve.
Sieve it several times, first sift out the too fine ones, throw them into a stone pound, add water and pound them, then remove the too thick ones left in the sieve and continue to grind them. The remaining black particles are evenly sized and look like sesame seeds. Put them in a bamboo utensil and spread them out.
Open to dry in the square
There are some people beside the wall, some sitting on wooden benches, and some sitting cross-legged on the ground. Next to them are processed gunpowder, which they are carefully loading into bamboo tubes. In addition to gunpowder and lead bullets, these short bamboo tubes are full.
After they were done, they were stuffed with plugs and tied into a string and placed aside, waiting for someone to collect them. Zhang Ning turned around and glanced at the guards following him. There were people carrying muskets and messy things hanging on their bodies, including this kind of bamboo tube.
Everyone worked in silence. Finally, someone saw Zhang Ning passing by and stood up to salute. Zhang Ning raised his arm on his horse and returned the salute seriously, saying: "No need to salute, you all can perform your duties."
He met another small group of soldiers on the road. They knocked on the door, but most of them received no response. Then they lifted wooden pillars and knocked them open. They found iron tools from inside and carried away pots, pots, spatulas, kitchen knives, shovels and hoes.
Zhang Ning and other people went to the east gate and ordered the city gate to be opened and the suspension bridge lowered. When everyone rode out of the city, the atmosphere suddenly became lively. They saw that a large number of soldiers had gathered inside the newly built fortification walls, and the generals were shouting back and forth.
On the plains in the distance, there are more people, densely packed with infantry troops, knights running and jogging, and flags are flying above the crowd, as numerous as clouds and sails. In this era, you have to rush to war early, the sun has not yet come out.
They've almost gathered together. I guess the stars will be visible when they get up to cook.
Zhang Ning rode his horse in through the opening next to the city wall. The soldiers behind the wall were very excited. They all looked at a young general and said loudly: "Brothers, I will beat them until their mothers can't even recognize them!"
Zhang Ning waved his hand and said: "Well done." An old soldier with gray hair said beside the war horse: "Your Majesty, please be careful, my brothers are relying on you." There was someone in the distance who wanted to talk to Zhang Ning, but he wanted to talk to Zhang Ning.
Responded one by one, "I will stay on the wall of the fort above. Everyone can see me when they turn around."
"Why are the officers and soldiers so good at scaring people? Weren't they beaten to the point of losing their nest a few days ago? We might as well bully him and fight for his mother's sake!" someone shouted.
At this time, a familiar voice shouted: "You know nothing, why don't you become the prince!"
Zhang Ning looked at the sound, and it turned out that it was Zhang Chengzong and other warriors who had no taboos in talking. If you take it seriously, you will lose. Zhang Ning naturally didn't take it seriously, and immediately explained to the people nearby: "Fortifications can reduce the number of casualties among officers and soldiers.
, we have to take care of our few troops as there is still a battle behind us, brothers, don’t worry, all your achievements will be recorded in the book, and when the battle is over, the money will be divided and the land will be divided!"
Zhang Ning jumped off the horse in front of Zhang Chengzong and said a few words to him. The two of them looked at the officers and soldiers on the opposite side for a while: "If there is a breakthrough somewhere later, don't hold on here, just give orders."
Get behind the second wall," Zhang Ning whispered to Zhang Chengzong.
They wandered around for a long time, and saw the officers and soldiers pulling up the cannon. Zhang Ning left the earth wall and climbed up to the earth fort with a group of people.
A general on the wall of the earthen castle shouted "Get ready". Zhang Ning did not care about pretending to be fearless and covered his ears with his hands. The others followed suit and covered their ears. At this time, everyone looked a little confused.
The only funny thing was that Yu Qian looked straight ahead with a straight face. Zhang Ning kindly reminded: "Open your mouth slightly to protect your ears."
The general of the artillery team drew out his sword and shouted: "First team fire all volleys, let's go!" In an instant, the loud bang made the bunker seem to be shaking, and thick smoke rushed in quickly.
The dust was flying, and Zhang Ning accidentally took a breath into his lungs. He couldn't help but start smoking. This place was too close to the artillery array. After several rounds of firing, it was completely filled with smoke, as if he had fallen into the clouds. Nothing could be seen in front of him.
Someone below shouted: "Turn it up one degree, and move the second and third guns on the left a moment to the right." Unexpectedly, Zhang Ning immediately ordered: "Tell the artillery team to stop firing for the time being."
The Suzaku Army has simple rangefinders and muskets, as well as observation posts dedicated to looking at targets. However, it is also difficult to accurately hit smaller targets with artillery fire at long distances. Whether or not the hit is successful depends entirely on luck. There is no back seat.
The force shock absorbing device, like the turret on the earth fort, is slightly more stable, but it requires repeated attempts, and the ammunition is too wasteful.
Sure enough, the bombardment did not cause the army's artillery to lose its counterattack power at all. After the smoke had almost dispersed, the artillery array in the distance was almost ready, and the heavy artillery fired one after another. The sound of the heavy artillery was very intimidating. It was nearly two miles away from the earthen fort.
You can still feel the earth-shattering loud noise; but the lethality is really not that terrifying. After the sparse counterattack, it seems that no one was killed on the fortification side at all. The iron balls fell from mid-air, and most of them hit the wide soil surface.
It has no effect except stirring up dust.
But soon the officers and soldiers found a way to do it. More and more heavy artillery was brought up on mule and ox carts, and they were set up and loaded everywhere. After a rough count, there were as many as forty or fifty guns in total. Zhang Fu, the old guy, was indeed
The equipment that the emperor's favorite received was really lavish. The general's heavy artillery in the army should be classified as thick-walled mortars in Zhang Ning's opinion. The barrels were thick and short and could only eject heavy shells. The imperial court had not yet mastered the casting of long barrels for field use.
Cannon relatively complex technology
The more targets there are, the greater the chance of hitting them. At this time, Zhang Ning ordered another bombardment.
This round of shelling seemed to have stung a hornet's nest. The next battle was filled with the sound of drums in the distance, and then dozens of heavy artillery roared together in the thick smoke. Zhang Ning saw the flash of fire everywhere, and for a moment he
It feels like the sky is covered with dark clouds, countless dark clouds colliding together, and continuous lightning and thunder roaring overhead.
Screams, exclamations, and the neighing of horses appeared one after another in the thick clouds. Someone could faintly hear someone shouting: "Don't run! Where can a dog run?" "Escape from the battle, behead him!" Then he heard the crackling of muskets.
sound
After a while, in the vague smoke, I saw some horse soldiers rushing over sparsely. Soon, the neighing of horses was heard, and there were continuous horses and people tumbling into the pit. It was too far away. Zhang Ning couldn't see clearly in the open space in front of the fortification.
situation, but a scene like this emerged subconsciously in his mind: the war horse stepped on the pit, and the wood chips and loose soil immediately turned over. The men and horses rushed in, and hit heavily on the sharpened wood and hard bamboo in the pit.
, the blood is raging, maybe the person is not dead yet, he is screaming in pain and calling for help
There were pits everywhere on the battlefield. The rangers who came running like they were having fun quickly became obedient. Some of them dismounted and walked away, all cautiously. Then a group of infantrymen came up from the army formation and searched the ground in a mess.
When those people approached the fortifications, sporadic gunfire crackled.
The battlefield was going on for a long time, during which the officers and soldiers fired another cannon. Fortunately, after all their cannons were fired, it was very slow to reload.
Near noon, a large number of infantry troops from the government army came forward. After firing another cannon from a distance, the crowd in front of the infantry troops slowly entered within a hundred steps. The former army only saw densely packed heads and no weapons.
Most of them are light infantry, with firearms in the front and archers in the back.
Zhang Chengzong waved his gleaming knife and shouted something, and then heard many people echoing and shouting "dong dong dong..." The cowhide drum made a dull knocking sound, and countless muskets and gongs were placed on the curved earth wall.
As soon as the sound was heard, a Suzaku flag leaned forward, "Bah, bang, bang..." A whole row of white smoke rose up. Many officers and soldiers fell to the ground, and some people could be seen crawling on the ground on the dry soil.
A lot of things were lost, including weapons and some wooden stands. The army's matchlock guns were relatively heavy and needed stands to fire.
After a while, a large amount of smoke also rose from the crowd of officers and soldiers. After the sound of cannons, dust scattered on the earthen wall. It was obvious that the losses of the Suzaku Army were much smaller. A wall had already blocked most of the lead bullets that flew randomly.